The jewels in the Bay Area's crown

Updated 9:23 am, Monday, October 7, 2013

November's Vanity Fair will include its list of "The New Establishment 2013," 50 innovators they say are changing our world. Not surprisingly, here in the heart of Gold Rush 2013, we've got a big presence. About half of the 50 are based in the Bay Area. (Some entries for single companies include more than one name, and that's why there are more than 25 names on this list.)

We don't get to claim Jeff Bezosof Amazon, who's No. 1. But after that:

The eight women on the list include actress Jennifer Lawrence(cited "for being the highest paid actress under 30"), and there is one politician, Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Tuesday's Teach a Community to Fish benefit was sold out, with 70 guests. The number felt right, intimate. Because when your goal is to talk to people about what they're eating, that's intimate, too.

The dinner, served on the premises of the recently closed Wo Hing General Store on Valencia Street and cooked by Charles Phanand Bi-Rite Market founder-owner Sam Mogannam, was in support of the nonprofit 18 Reasons, offspring of Bi-Rite. Its goal is to teach people how to cook and eat in healthy ways; its Cooking Matters program includes classes taught in a rented space across the street from the market, and a cookbook lending library is being organized.

Board member Anna Ghoshhad invited me to this dinner, and I asked her whether the beneficiaries of 18 Reasons programs would be encouraged to shop at Bi-Rite, a wonderful place but not known as a haven for the thrift-conscious. "It's about maximizing your resources," she said. "We're not asking people on limited incomes to buy their meals at Bi-Rite." What they're doing instead is encouraging folks to cook beans and rice for dinner, providing a healthy alternative to downing a bucket of chicken. Lessons utilize simple tools - pan, knife, cutting board - and participants take home vegetables. "We're making our own definition of good food," said Executive Director Sarah Nelson. "If we add more vegetables, we're eating healthier food, and the things not so good would go away."

After dinner, Mogannam, Phan and Nelson spoke, each heaping generous servings of praise upon the others, and emphasizing the basics: "Cooking matters, community matters." Phan and his family lived in Chinatown when they came to the United States in the '70s. In Chinatown, he said, the streets are strewn with cardboard boxes. "That means food is moving." A quick meal is stir-fried vegetables, and "it's hard to find a McDonald's in Chinatown."

The next morning, I checked. No McDonald's in Chinatown. "It makes me tickled to see how beautiful this part of the city is," Phan said, especially "the food scene."

-- Dick Fregulia, whose Good Vibes Quartet was booked to play at the Cliff House on Friday, will go bowling instead. The Cliff House was closed with the federal shutdown Thursday.

-- Mark Caplin says the atmosphere was so sublime when he got his flu shot at Kaiser in Vallejo - a gentleman played piano for those waiting in line - that one nurse said she wasn't "sure if I'm working in a hospital or cocktail lounge."

Public Eavesdropping

"Why don't you roll your jeans down? You don't want to be Capri in wintertime."

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